Animals, mountains now planes. DAF go to KSBA
On Saturday April 13 Del Amo Flyers landed at Santa Barbara Airport for a wonderful lunch at the High Sierra Restaurant, soon to be Flightline Restaurant. The sky was blue, and the weather could not have been more perfect. There were 35 people and about 10 airplanes for the lunch fly in. The High Sierra Restaurant was tastefully decorated with aviation memorabilia. The restaurant was smart and had the DAFers separated from the main dining area. To our advantage, this allowed the DAFers to socialize with all who attended. Signature FBO was very welcoming to all the planes. They had a few combinations of discounts for the FBO landing fees with receipts from High Sierra and fuel. And, the fuel price was reasonable to start with.
Thank you to Linda Howard who made this a great lunch fly in.
FAST TIMES AT RENO-STEAD
Our March dinner meeting featured DAFer Skylor Piper who shared with us his journey of preparing to compete and some of his adventures while competing in the Reno National Championship Air Races, which takes place every September at Reno-Stead Airport. His preparation included attending the (required for new competitors) four day Pylon Racing Seminar (Rookie School) held every June at the same airport.
Skylor's entertaining presentation included the history of the race, descriptions of the seven race categories and visuals of the four different race courses. The race footage he shared was amazing, not surprising as this aviation event is billed as the World's Fastest Motosport. His amateur built-experimental aircraft, a Van's Aircraft RV-8 has reached an impressive speed of 235.876 mph while racing there! We also learned about how he preps his plane for the race, including the removal of excess weight and drag. He enjoys the competitive environment and has even taken first place in the 2016 Slalom Match Racing event! A big thank you to Skylor for his informative presentation.
We wish him a terrific 2019 racing season!
More than just Pokin' around Lompoc
One would think a winter flight to the central coast in a year dominated by clouds and rain would be gray and windswept, with opportunities to practice IFR procedures or drive wet roads and add an extra layer of warm clothes to fend off the elements. But as we all know, DAFers are resourceful and adapt to what nature throws at them. So when a dramatic change in the winter weather forced seventeen DAFers to fly VFR through bright, cloudless skies to reach Lompoc (KLPC) for our March Fly-in, they rose to the occasion. Undaunted by temperatures in the lower 70s and light breezes in Lompoc, some drove through emerald-green hills to walk along the wide beaches at Jalama Beach, climbed to vistas at Lookout Point or visited period-dressed docents at La Purisima Mission and learned about eighteenth-century mission life. At one point on Saturday, they did retreat inside to taste wine at two wineries in the Wine Ghetto, but only to comply with laws on public drinking in an industrial park.
Weather was not the only unexpected aspect of the trip.
Unexpectedly, we were offered dinner in a private dining room Friday and again for Lunch on Saturday! The intrepid group adapted quickly to this good luck. And even though we had accidentally booked dinner Saturday at two restaurants 20 miles apart, the folks at the Italian-family-run La Botte were gracious and served us a delicious meal.
As further evidence of the agility of DAF members, a few who could not make the full weekend, flew out to join us in Lompoc. Mitch and Vince flew out for lunch Saturday and then Peter and Mitch (with copilot Jan) flew out again Sunday to have lunch with the Lompoc expedition stragglers and enjoy the continuing perfect weather.
The tally was 7 planes (one twice), one car, 17 Dafers, two wineries and a lot of fun exploring the area. Thanks to all that came and showed how resourceful and adaptive DAFers are and how we strive to make the best of our opportunities.
Path 2 Flight - Introduces new pilots to discover their passion for flight
Jill Rutan Hoffman grew up with a family that had an extreme passion for aviation innovation. She returned to DAF as our February dinner speaker to present her new concepts on flight training that would decrease the cost of obtaining a pilot license thus allowing more individuals to build their passion for flight. By decreasing the cost, more pilots can be created to assist in the serious commercial pilot shortage. Jill's latest adventure has led her to develop an organization called Path 2 Flight. The mission of Path 2 Flight is to introduce potential pilots to various flying opportunities and then assist in flight training through using industry’s latest technologies. The development of electric planes can reduce the cost of flight time due to the significantly lower cost of power for the electric airplane. Jill predicts that it will only cost dollars for electrical power verses a hundred dollars per hour for aviation fuel. The second technology that Path 2 Flight utilizes is Virtual Reality Flight Simulation. VR has a depth of realism that transfers to actual flying an airplane. VR training is readily available and cost significantly lower than actual flight time. Jill stated that she was speaking to the choir concerning passion for flight. She encouraged Del Amo Flyers to continue to support new pilots and spread their passion for aviation.
More information on Path 2 Flight can be found at www.path2flight.com. A special thank you to Jill for sharing with us about her newest project.
Bermuda Dunes
On Saturday February 24th the Del Amo Flyers had our first actual flying event for the year: 45+ DAFERS, including a number of 99's, flew to Bermuda Dunes (KUDD). Over a dozen aircraft flew to Bermuda Dunes Airport and a couple of people arrived by car. The lush green vegetation and snow in the background made for a scenic flight.
It was just a short walk/ride outside the FBO to Murph’s Gaslight Restaurant where we had lunch. The FBO and restaurant handled the large crowd superbly. We filled the entire dining room. Staff provided excellent service and smiles.
It was a great day, with perfect weather, great lunch, and wonderful company!
Thanks to Liz for arranging it all!
CARS, FOOD AND PLANES - A GREAT COMBO
Our January drive-in was well attended with 34 DAFers showing up to Automobile Driving Museum in the pouring rain! It was a great day for a museum drive-in as a fly-in would not have worked out so well though it did clear up later. We learned much on our tours from docents Dick and Maurice, who were educational and quite passionate about the antique, muscle and vintage cars there. We even saw electric cars from 1922 and 1975! Who knew? This museum is a little gem in an industrial part of El Segundo and even includes an old-school ice cream parlor and event space for 300. After getting our fill of these unique cars, the group met at the nearby Proud Bird Food Bazaar and Events Center where we had lunch from the Food Bazaar, which offers many different varieties of delicious food. We dined together with a view of planes taking off rather than short final due to wind conditions. After lunch 15 of us took a docent led tour by Jacob who eagerly shared history of the restaurant, interior displays and aircraft on display outside of the restaurant. Some of us relaxed for a bit more after the tour, chatting, enjoying the view and the beautiful, but still cloudy day after the rain passed.